Tag: sponsor a child

Your Sponsorship Brings Hope: A Report from El Salvador

A frequently asked question about child sponsorship is this: How does it make a difference? People want to know that their concern, their money and their intentions are safe in our hands. This video from El Salvador highlights one of thousands of similar stories that attest to the crucial difference your sponsorship can make in the life of a child!

Compassion Sunday Is Child Sponsorship Taken to the Next Level

As soon as I completed my Advocate training, my first thought was to host a Compassion Sunday at my church. I was on fire, passionate, and thought that was the obvious next step. I was wrong.

How Is Compassion Sunday Like Putting Mentos in Diet Coke?

When you put a Mentos mint into a bottle of soda it explodes like a volcano, just like an explosive phenomenon taking place all over the country on behalf of children in poverty. In both cases this explosive phenomenon is about multiplication.

I Was a Christian Sponge in a Tub of Living Water

I’m a cynic. And I’m a contrarian. When the pop-culture collective is doing something, I usually don’t want any part of it. By staying aloof, I nourish my emotionally wounded soul on a diet rich in the fat of condescension. That’s how I feed my deflated sense of self. That’s how I roll.

Although I’m not always a cynical contrarian, it is often my default viewpoint, and this can be a stumbling block for a social media marketer — cynical contrarians don’t tend to mesh well with marketing objectives. Maybe this is a good thing for you.

In my opinion, most marketing is about numbers. Getting more of something. And by that narrow, cynical definition the One Act video is pure marketing.

But, in my opinion the One Act video transcends the castor oil taste manipulative marketing often leaves me with. And I think that’s because the “one act” this video refers to happened to change my life. I am not a sponsored child, never was, but the act of sponsoring a child took me down a path I never would’ve imagined.

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What Does God Want From Me?

Jesus is traveling with a crowd, teaching as He walks. A blind man sitting by the road hears the passing commotion and asks what is going on. When he learns that Jesus of Nazareth is near, he calls out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Several times the man calls out, even louder after some in the crowd tell him to be quiet. “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”

– Luke 18:40-41 (NIV)

I am that blind man calling out to God.

Encourage me. Strengthen me. Provide for me. Comfort me. Save me. Give me. Help me.

That’s what I want.

What do you think these kids want? What are they crying out for?

Fifty kids in Haiti. All at the same center. All need God’s love. All need God’s mercy.

How about you? What are you calling out to God for?

All the while we cry out, God is calling out to us. Follow me. Be like me. Share my love.

Is it possible that my needs and your needs complement these kids’ needs? That we offer one another an opportunity to give God what He wants?

I No Longer Sponsor a Child

You know the scene in any coming-of-age movie when a teenage girl is about to go to her first dance and she appears at the top of the stairs and her parent (usually a widowed father) stands there with tears in his eyes and a huge lump in his throat, totally entranced by his daughter’s newly uncovered beauty? That’s how I feel.

Watch This Video and Dude Perfect Will Sponsor Some Kids

For every 100,000 views this video gets, Dude Perfect will sponsor a child. It’s all explained at dudeperfect.com.

Child Sponsorship Releases Generations From Poverty

People often ask me what my favorite part of my job is. For me, the answer is easy: the people I get to meet and know around the world. There are people working for Compassion with such heart and passion and such incredible stories of their own. Henry Guarin is one of those people.

Henry’s fun and funny, he sings in a rock band, he has a passion for his job. And he used to be a sponsored child.

Here’s a little more about Henry, in his own words.

It’s 7:15 a.m. in Bogotá, Colombia, it’s cold, as usual, and I am waiting for the school bus to pick up Juan Felipe, my 5-year-old son.

As we stand at the door of the apartment building we live in we are talking about his favorite TV shows, dinner, games with his friends at school, and other things, just like every day.

The school bus finally arrives, so I give him a big hug and a big kiss and I tell him,

“The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him; and he delivers them.”

I come back to my apartment and Xiomara, my wife, is finishing feeding our little son Lucas. He is only 5 months old and he is happily kicking in his cradle, and he smiles at me as he sees me coming in.

Xiomara and I sit and start talking about how different things were for us when we were children. (more…)

Feed My Lambs

We all know that on the night Jesus was arrested, Peter denied knowing Him, three times. But thankfully, Peter’s story does not end there.

In John 21, following His resurrection, Jesus asked Peter, three times, “Do you love me?” And each time Peter responded, Jesus called him to ministry: “Feed my sheep.”

Like Peter, I have been broken by sin, I am being healed by grace, and I am called to feed Christ’s lambs. Those of us who sponsor children know that Compassion’s whole ministry is about “feeding” Christ’s sheep.

I have heard numerous times that each child is said to have a sphere of influence of about 30 people, and I love knowing that every time a child is sponsored, perhaps 30 people’s lives will be impacted for Jesus Christ!

Compassion International as a Part of God’s Plan for My Life

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A Conversation With Richmond Wandera

Do you remember Richmond? He’s one of the Wess Stafford-Moody Bible Institute Scholarship recipients Celina told you about.

Do you have 21 minutes? If so, you’ll be hard-pressed not to be impressed by this humble man.

Greg Nettle, senior pastor of Rivertree Christian Church, conducts the interview.